Portland Parks & Recreation says a landslide in Forest Park has closed Leif Erikson Drive, resulting in a closure of the gravel road that is popular for biking, hiking and running.

According to PP&R spokesperson Beth Sorensen, the road is now closed between milepost 7 and milepost 7.25 and is not expected to be reopened until repairs are completed in October.
Sorensen sent us these photos of the slide taken by park ecologists earlier today:

Sorensen says the slide occurred at milepost 7.11, which is about a 1/2 mile south of the St. Johns Bridge. There’s a culvert at that location that PP&R already planned to replace this year. Recent heavy rains were given as the cause of the slide.

For people biking in the park, the suggested detour (if heading north on Leif Erikson) is to head up Firelane 5 Saltzman Road to Skyline Road and then descend back into the park via Springville Road. A map showing the location of the slide and proposed detours has been made available and can be downloaded here.

I think that there might be a typo or just a mistake here. Folks should take saltzman up to skyline and then springville back down to Leif Erickson. FL5 is a tough single track climb while saltzman is a relatively easy jeep road.

That’s what you get for cow-towing to the bike lobby. I bet there was a biker there at the time and mother nature was trying to exact her revenge! That’s ok though, this makes FP all that much more pristine.

Cost effective repair:
Signs on both sides of affected area stating “All users proceed at their own risk!” with small print absolving any local authority of any liability for their failure to reverse the natural geological process.

You guys are way off base with your blame-game-playing. Obviously this is the fault of those kids who graduated the Safe Routes to School program. They should never have bombed down that grassy hill! In Overlook Park!

Closure to foot and bike traffic? Is there more of an issue there than the photos show?

Someone who uses this route and lives in Portland (neither for me) should ask why the closure for 3-4 months. Sure looks like the managment of the hazard would be pretty straight forward and the trail could be opened.

I recall reading that the reason the City has Forest Park is because back in the late 1800s, much of what is now FP was sold off for development. The land was cleared and soon had massive landslides, making it clear that this was view property, but not residential view property. Soon the County had much of it abandoned on tax rolls and it finally ended up in City hands.
Point being, landslides are nothing new here. That there are more is what amazes me.

Any biker/walker who can’t negotiate around this little sinkhole should probably stick to the Springwater. Sounds like a lawyer’s decision to close it for 4 months. Four Months!?! Is that because city engineers can’t figure out a temmporary repair to keep it open for the most used period of the year? Unbelievable! Portland!

And the detour map: That was as clear as mud. I like the idea of signs warning of the danger and allowing people the chance to make an intelligent decision as to whether they should risk it or not. Give us as break; we’ve all got brains. Jeese! And if a few fall into the hole, that’s just Darwin illustrated.

They probably want people to stay off it so when the rest of the road falls away there won’t be anyone on it who would get hurt.

Roads built on hillsides in rainy areas frequently have this problem– especially when said road is built over a culvert that isn’t doing its job to divert water.

Just be smart, people. If you decide to ignore the road closed signs, and the road falls away with you on it, you forfeit your right to be mad about it or to get anything from the city and the parks dept!

I rode on that section a few days ago when it was still open…that is one scary land slide…I was coming around the corner and then there just is a sheer drop of about 15ft…had to ride back past it on the way back to the car!

Putting up a barrier to prevent someone from going into the hole, plus a bunch of orange/reflective cones, and some warning signs is all that is needed to allow people to keep using it. Neck it down to a one lane so they stay back from the edge. Cut some bushes and push the trail back into the bushes if that is necessary. Closing the trail for such a minor problem is stupid.